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Carcass of Gray Whale found Washed Up on Portuguese Beach

Submitted by Andrea Cordell on Mon, 05/25/2015 - 20:24

Another carcass of a gray whale was found on beach in the Bay area over the weekend. The washed up whale has increased the total for the dead whale discovered in the past five weeks to seven. Reports have showed that the 28-foot whale came to waters of Sonoma County's Portuguese beach.

An investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the death of the whale. Park officials have to say that the whale had died quite some time ago as the carcass was found in decomposing state.

No evidence has been found to indicate that the whale died because of injuries or trauma caused by hit from a ship. Marine Mammal Center has received a tissue sample to investigate the exact cause behind the demise of the animal.

Jones said that they are looking forward to leave the carcass of the whale on the beach so that it can go back to the ocean along with the tide.

The park rangers said that they usually leave it to nature to take its own course when they find dead and sick animals and that is why leave them where they are found.

April 24 also saw two dead whales washed up on a beach in Santa Cruz County. Among the two was a full-grown 40-foot gray whale. The other, a 23-foot yearling, was learnt having died of injuries from a killer whale attack.

Other such case of dead whales washing up had emerged in last couple of months. A dead killer whale was found washed up near Fort Bragg in Mendocino County on April 18.

May brings the end of the northern migration of gray whales. During this time, an estimated 5,000 miles are traveled by the marine animals from their mating and birthing lagoons in Mexico back to their natural feeding grounds in Alaska.